cycling
10. Juni, 14:05 Uhr
To give you a background before I start talking about the sappiness of my life recently, I may as well tell you why this is significant to myself and how I hope I can probably relate to some other individuals on more personal levels.
My family was very poor growing up, we always moved house to house, and my family always got the bad end of the stick with the economy. My dad owned a construction company in South Carolina and later he was put into bankruptcy due to how bad the times were back in 2008. We moved back and forth from South Carolina and to Tennessee over the course of for years, I could barely stay in schools and make friends, my family never really got close to one another either because I would never see my parents because they would be working themselves sometimes two jobs at a time. During this time, I got very close to my grandpa, and him and I are still very close (in fact he's going to start riding bikes here soon, we got him a Cannondale Synapse as a late birthday gift). The last time we lived in South Carolina, my dad landed a job that lasted for nearly two years and then suddenly he lost it, and my mother just coming out of college to become an RN (my dad attempted this as well but stopped taking classes so that he could help support the family and her at the same time, leading us children to barely seen them again) made the bold decision with my father to move to Central Florida, and after about six months of living here my father lost his job that he got here, it was another construction job go figure and my mom is again working two jobs but this time by choice because she enjoys working as a RN that much. I am thankful beyond belief for these two, they try to support their four kids so immensely by working themselves so much.
My father recently got another job where he met a few people that really enjoyed riding bicycles, and he fell in love with it. He started on a Giant GTX 970 then went to a Cannondale Quick when he realized he enjoyed riding. I was given the opportunity to ride the Giant to see if I enjoyed it, which to be bluntly honest at first on that clunky aluminum bike I did not. I began making excuses on why I wouldn't ride. "Oh my leg hurts." "I'm too tired." "I have homework.." When I came to realization of how poor I was being to my fathers attempts to bond with me and that this was a great chance for me to exercise (something I never really have done before), I picked my ass up and started to change it. Due to me doing this, he got me a Cannondale Super Six, a uniform with some very nice cleats.
Cycling has started to get me in shape, mentally and physically. When I started riding bikes my grades started to come up, and I enjoyed that as did my parents of course because college without scholarships really sets you back in life (especially for software development currently I feel or any other STEM courses). I've lost 57 Lbs, and that got me excited and more confident in myself I must admit, and being a teen that is a great thing to help prepare you and I do love the sudden attention from females that I never got being about 280 Lbs.
All this nice stuff isn't really the greatest benefiting factors to me, it's the bond I've grown with my father. Getting out early in the morning, grabbing a toasted bagel and a latte and then going for a 25 mile ride with him, and more recently groups of people and more thrilling trails with these amazing inclines with very steep and fast declines. It's amazing and heartwarming. I see him get excited when I start to surpass him in speed and cadence, or when I can almost physically throw myself up a hill and pass some other people going up it, people that look like they should be able to climb it much better than a 17 year old that now weighs 208 Lbs.
I have no words to thank the community of people here in Central Florida, my friends that doubted me, even Cannondale for these amazing bikes we use, but most importantly my loving father.
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